Staying Busy and out of trouble, 2020-21?.

[Old Greenhorn]

But..... its not a table. the miter slot would hinder my artistic freedom. ;D

[Hilltop366]

Artistic freedom aside I wonder how a jig that was a 45° V that spanned the blade and rides in both miter slots, have both pieces pre-cut at 45° then clamp them in the V to do the final pass on both at the same time. As long as the jig is 45° any inconsistencies in jig or blade angle should not matter?

[doc henderson]

"Kerfing" the joint.

[Hilltop366]

Yup.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well there are always a handful of ways to do anything. I am using this on the table saw and on the router table, which is why I can can't use as strip in the table slot.



 

More tonight, back to work.

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, long day and I am pooped. All day on my feet pretty much. Don't know if I will go back out after dinner. I have tickets for an online concert at7pm, and by the time that is done...

 So this morning I pulled out the router table, which is home made and came with my table saw. I have never used it and it was in a corner so of course I had to do some cleaning and re-arranging to get it out. I took the motor out, cleaned it and set a 3/8" straight slotting bit in it and put it back in the table. It's not a very good design and has no allowance for chip removal, so I have yet to work on that because packing chips are an issue on this job. Anyway I made the stuff I needed for a fence guide and begin and end stops, this will be a blind spline joint. I clamped up the pine sample joint I had made and tried it out. Worked OK, so I did the other half then found some stock to make the tenon. My wife was painting downstairs so I didn't have room to set up the planer to make something proper, I just winged it on the table saw and sanded for a snug fit. The joint went together well enough that with careful and proper clamping at the glue-up it will be a clean joint with very minimal gaps and it will be square which was what I was most sweating over. I didn't bother to glue it.


 
 SO now it was time to cut on the real pretty wood, but I just couldn't bring myself to jump in. My wife suggested I try a test joint on hardwood. I took this further and grabbed a well dried maple slab off the pile that pretty well matched the cherry slab in all sizes. I cut off a chunk and set up the planer and cleaned it up. I also planed a piece of Cherry to 3/8 for the tenons on the good slab and a piece of Ash to the same dimension for this new test bench. This maple I just sanded after planing and didn't go through the epoxy and fine sanding steps. I took it upstairs and laid out my square cuts, set up the jig on the saw and cut the angles on the top and one leg and rough clamped them up to see how the matches would look. The live edges are my concern.


 

So I am pretty happy with that matchup. The waterfall effect with the grain in this piece of Maple came out pretty ok too. You see a gap in this phot because the block I used for clamping is not quite square, I just wanted to get a look at it.


 

All the edges come up true and square when it is properly aligned. I need to make some good square blocks for clamping when I do the joint fitting. I was a little stressed making those miter cuts with all the clamps hanging all over and for some reason, the piece is not feeding square to the blade and burns a little. I have to step back and figure that out. Having a 3' seat sticking up in the air isn't the most handy thing to work with either. Tomorrow I will finish the cuts, then try the slots and tenons on the router making some tweaks on each step along the way.
 But tomorrow is another day. If I push further today, I will likely screw something up.

[WV Sawmiller]

I don't know what it is or will be but it sure looks good so far. I await further postings with bated breath. (I wonder if mouthwash would cure bated breath?)

[Old Greenhorn]

Its just another bench.

[doc henderson]

no, it is a waterfall bench!  how many legs will it have?  two?   8)   :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah. I haven't figured out how to do 3 yet. ;D

[Nebraska]

I'm impressed.

[Old Greenhorn]

I'm impressed.

Oh don't be.... ;D I have plenty of opportunities to mess this up yet. It's a pretty simple joint really, but it has to be straight and flat for a good join. The angles have to be pretty much spot on in order for the legs to come in at exactly 90°, and the mortises have to be dead perpendicular to the edge faces and both at the exact same distance from the inside edge in order for the outside edges to meet perfectly when it is glued up. Then of course I need a nice snug slip fit for the tenons in each slot. SO let's all just wait and see how I find new ways to have this go wrong. I know lots of guys do these all the time with ease, but my equipment is not really close to cabinet maker quality or accuracy, so I am having to think of ways to minimize the risk of errors a little bit harder. It's a lot more work than I expected. But, it might look cool.
 Or, it might be a bust. Brandon asked me to try it and supplied the wood and a lot of design ideas as we talked it through. I don't want to let him down.

[nybhh]

Hey, its looking great!  I'm impressed too.  Don't worry about letting me down!  There's plenty more wood and this is suppose to be a fun learning experiment for both of us.

Edit:  I have one of these (tenoning jig)
https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-tenoning-jig/h7583?gclid=Cj0KCQiAwMP9BRCzARIsAPWTJ_FFLXIxIlLcJpSKROFhcte-j68iFx-8-LQtDnlj5Nf9C7DOxQQEYBMaApuHEALw_wcB

It was donated/given to me and I've never used it before.  Let me know if you think it would be useful.  

[Nebraska]

Nope sorry still impressed.    That joint is past my current pay grade and equipment, not saying I won't try it, just not soon.

[Old Greenhorn]

Edit:  I have one of these (tenoning jig)
https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-tenoning-jig/h7583?gclid=Cj0KCQiAwMP9BRCzARIsAPWTJ_FFLXIxIlLcJpSKROFhcte-j68iFx-8-LQtDnlj5Nf9C7DOxQQEYBMaApuHEALw_wcB

It was donated/given to me and I've never used it before.  Let me know if you think it would be useful.  

NOW you tell me this?! ;D :D >:( Yeah, that would have been pretty handy and saved me making the jig. It would also allow tweaking of the angle to get it more perfect. Not sure if it will match my table slot and hopefully the tongue is removable for use on the router table, but yeah, I would like to try that out.

[Old Greenhorn]

Nope sorry still impressed.    That joint is past my current pay grade and equipment, not saying I won't try it, just not soon.

OK, tell you what because this is also above my paygrade and pushing my equipment, if I do manage to pull this off, I too will be impressed. It's just that I know me pretty well and suspect I will screw this up somehow.

[Ljohnsaw]

nd the mortises have to be dead perpendicular to the edge faces and both at the exact same distance from the inside edge in order for the outside edges to meet perfectly when it is glued up.

Just theorizing...  IF the outside edge does not exactly line up, couldn't you ease the corner (round it over) a bit to hide the screw-up enhance the waterfall effect?  Or would the grain distort on the round edge and not line up?  Maybe practice on the pine and oak samples?

[Ljohnsaw]

Edit:  I have one of these (tenoning jig)
https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-tenoning-jig/h7583?gclid=Cj0KCQiAwMP9BRCzARIsAPWTJ_FFLXIxIlLcJpSKROFhcte-j68iFx-8-LQtDnlj5Nf9C7DOxQQEYBMaApuHEALw_wcB

It was donated/given to me and I've never used it before.  Let me know if you think it would be useful.  

NOW you tell me this?! ;D :D >:( Yeah, that would have been pretty handy and saved me making the jig. It would also allow tweaking of the angle to get it more perfect. Not sure if it will match my table slot and hopefully the tongue is removable for use on the router table, but yeah, I would like to try that out.

After watching the two videos, while a very nice jig/tool, it wouldn't work for your application.  It only flips down to 75° so you wouldn't have been able to get your 45° end cuts with it.  It was not designed to do that.
A little fussy but to do the end cuts you want, I use a sled on my table saw and tilt the blade.  The sled allow you to get a very square and even cut and is fairly save/secure as the large boards are flat on the table.  For the spline cut, that is where a biscuit cutter would shine (don't have one of those).

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah ljohnsaw, on closer inspection it appears you are correct, that fixture won't swing down far enough and that is a shame. Their designer came up short on that one. It would have been perfect.
 Well this afternoon I finished the cutting and mortises on the test bench. Lots of little things to figger out and get used to. I cut the tenons and they fit very nicely (accidents happen) and put it together to look it over. Turns out, when I glue it, I think I can just use one clamp.


 
The joints come up dead nuts on 90° between the legs and the top. Really pleased with that and the joints fit pretty nice.


 

One of the issues I was concerned about is that as a live edge, nothing is perfect and the fold over corners would not match. Some came out very close, others are like this.


 

Not a big deal and not a screw up by any stretch, but I will have to deal with it in finishing. I have not glued it yet, actually I am going to use epoxy because I think it is stronger and will fill better and it will be yet another 'experiment'. Truth is, as a dry fit it doesn't even need a clamp and looks pretty good.


 

 I will glue this up tomorrow (I may just do one leg at a time because of working time) and while it is curing I will start cutting on the Cherry slab. No screw ups yet, and mostly what I learned was small technique things to either make it easier or a little more accurate. In any event, it's not a 'bang it out' kind of project, taking care and time with each step and cut matters.
 So far, so good, and Nebraska I am getting closer to agreeing with you. Right now I will just say that I am relieved I haven't mis-judged something and needed a do-over. I just keep learning as I go. And tomorrow is another day, right?

[WV Sawmiller]

   Okay, now for the real challenge - with a bench that thick I think you need a drawer in the middle. ??? : :D

[Old Greenhorn]

  Okay, now for the real challenge - with a bench that thick I think you need a drawer in the middle. ??? : :D

OK stick that idea in your ear!  :D :D :D :D :D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

Hey, be careful! I am real sensitive about criticism you know. I just thought you wanted a challenge. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Hey, be careful! I am real sensitive about criticism you know. I just thought you wanted a challenge. :D

The question here then become are you more sensitive to criticism, or am I more sensitive to folks adding to the complexity of my projects when I am already stressed out? :D ;D Just askin'

[doc henderson]

you should watch Dr. Wengerts webinar on glue if you hav not.  I think he would recommend glue, or keep the joint loose so the epoxy has enough heat to cure.  looks great, 2 legged bench.

[Old Greenhorn]

you should watch Dr. Wengerts webinar on glue if you hav not.  I think he would recommend glue, or keep the joint loose so the epoxy has enough heat to cure.  looks great, 2 legged bench.

Yeah, that is in my queue to watch I have just not made time. Maybe if I am up early I can get that one in. Yes, epoxy needs space for sure.